Cort X-6 Review
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General Information
Original Author:mattacuk
Weapon: 6 String Electric Guitar
Make: Cort
Model: X-6
Price: £200 GBP / $413 USD (bought used)
First a little about the Manufacturer. Cort are a very large Guitar company who do not infact focus on there own brand, but rather make guitars under contract for well known companys such as Schecter, Ibanez, Fender, G&L and many others.
They do of course have there own line of Guitars, catering to many different styles and genre.
To the best of my knowledge, the low to mid range Ibanez models are produced under license by Cort - and only the High end models branded "team J-craft" are made in Japan. (please correct me if wrong).
Again to the best of my knowledge, Cort produce some 600,000 Guitars a year!! Pretty impressive stuff then.
The Purchase
I saw this Guitar sat in a used guitar shop in my local area and was at first taken back by how much it looked just like an Ibanez RG Model Guitar. The Guitar was used, but like brand new! And the price tag seemed an absolute steal.
I joined GMC with no knowledge of "Shred Guitar", and so was very happy indeed with my Les Paul copy - and still am. But it soon became apparent that the 22 fret axe was les than ideal for wild sweep picking solos, shredding and the sorts - Especially with alot of our lessons useing up to 24 frets.
So I needed a 24 fret shred/solo ready guitar that wouldnt break the bank, and this was it !! I walked into the Guitar store and handed over my money and walked out with a big grin biggrin.gif
Of course I had to walk through town with it under my arm - Just to show people how cool I am laugh.gif
Build Quality and Hardware
This is where the Guitar really excel's IMO. This guitar has the looks and feel of its more expensive Ibanez branded counterpart. Everything about the guitar is good quality - from the tuneing pegs to the offical Floyd Rose tremolo. The neck is slim and smooth, featureing 24 Jumo frets and a double locking system to keep the strings in tune when you go banana's on the trem biggrin.gif
I also find the neck to be very fast, well built and enjoyable to play on.
The first time I plugged it in, I noticed instantly how bright and clean the pickups were. You get your typical H - S - H configuration as typically found on RG models so plenty of tonal options available at your command.
I typically always use the front humbucker as I love the tone it produces. There is a volume and tone knob available, and if you pull the tone knob out it is infact a coil tap - NICE!!
For those of you who are not familiar with a coil tap, it is a neat function allowing you to use a single pickup of a humbucker - giving you even more tonal options smile.gif
Be you a Metal Head, Rocker, Jazz player or lover of clean playing, you can find a tone here that will suit you.
The Floyd Rose Trem looks great in Silver, on closer analysis there is an "Offical Floyd Rose" stamp on it. I have had this guitar a while now and its not once given me an ounce of trouble. Changeing strings has taken me a few minutes tops, and you can go as wild as you want with the trem - it never lets you down.
The Overall build quality if that of a much higher priced guitar, sturdy and good looking.
Sound Quality
Again I find this to be very high quality for a budget priced guitar. If I play this through my Vox AC15 with natural Overdrive it gives a beautiful warm mellow tone which always puts a smile on my face. I find this really great for Rythm and Blues work. I like to keep the tone knob down here to keep a nice smoothness to the overall sound.
Kick on the Distortion and/or Overdrive pedals and this Axe becomes a whole different animal. High gain sounds pretty wicked through the Humbuckers! Very bright, yet plenty of soul.
I spend most of my practice time doing high gain solos/shredding/sweep arpeggios etc and am overall very happy with the tones. Of course this guitar is not going to sound anywhere near as nice as a high end Ibanez prestige model (which I am saving for) but still good for the cash.
Overall I think you can get away with playing most genre of styles on this Guitar, but it is suited to solo work in terms of tone and features.
Value
There is no doubt in my mind this Guitar is great value for money. Perfect for beginner to Intermediate players. There is nothing that stands out on this guitar as unsuitable for Intermediates in any way.
You get alot of good hardware, and a nice looking guitar similair in appearance to an Ibanez RG for not a lot of cash.
Overall Impression
I am very impressed with this Cort Axe. It features everything I wanted and more. When you stop to consider the Volume of top Quality guitars Cort make under license for Ibanez, Schecter and Fender etc it stands to reason Corts own line will be good quality.
It is a good solid workhorse suitable for many hours of practice. It will certainly fair me well untill I can afford my Ibanez Presitge, or PGM.
Alternative Axe
For a few bucks more, the X - 11 is similair in features but has a beautiful Translucent finish with Shark tooth fretboard Inlay, if this had been available at the time I would have bought that instead.
Any of the low to mid range RG models are are very similair in build and appearence and also very worth a look.
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